A Writing Exercise
Step 1: With the pinky finger of your left hand, press and hold shift.
Step 2: With the middle finger of your right hand, press i.
Step 3: Repeat as necessary…
Which would be whenever “I” stands alone in a sentence, as a pronoun. Remember this from first grade? Unless you’re in a private IM with friends, there is no excuse for an author to publicly post a comment/email/anything riddled with the lowercase i.
We all make typos. Spellcheck doesn’t catch everything. If authors didn’t make spelling, typographical or grammatical errors, we wouldn’t need editors. But when you consistently present yourself as having shoddy literary skills, do you really expect people to pay to read more of the same?
And how hard is “shift-i”, really?
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Oh God Shannon, you must have seen the same blog post I did! I asked Angela James about it in her blog and she said that if she received a submission with that many errors, she wouldn’t be able to consider the material.:rulez:
What makes so many people sloppy with grammar, punctuation and spelling? Do we not care anymore? My Dad was an English major and made us toe the line as far as grammar and usage was concerned. For an author to be so sloppy it’s just inexcusable.:whip:
I’m really happy to see an author take this stand. This reader appreciates your consideration.:clap:
September 4th, 2007 at 2:38 am
*falls on Shannon’s neck with gratitude*
Haven’t seen the thing you mention, but, GAAAAAAAAAAAD, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s STUPID.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:46 am
i
mah SHiFT KEEZ
Sorry. I’m home alone. Moms Gone Wild filming begins in an hour, and I couldn’t help myself.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Holy cow. Do I want to know what inspired this post?
September 5th, 2007 at 7:57 am
But what if you’re like me and don’t type with the right fingers on the right keys?
:nod:Oh, wait, I do use my pinky for that. I truly make an honest effort with grammar when submitting, I don’t want the editor sitting over there
because I’m making really stupid mistakes.
Great post. I know when I talk to my son or any of his friends or even my sisters online, the idk, idc, and other ones I have to sit and seriously think about gets on my nerves, but they’re not writers–published authors. The other pet peeve I have is people who speak online in all caps in an IM.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Charli, just a little knee-jerk reaction to the many missives from publishing “professionals” going around blogland. Professionals being a very loosely used term.
And Rae, I’ve known you like 6 years now, and I still can’t comprehend how you type. Someday we’ll have to get together just so I can watch you.
I have refrained from posting another exercise on how to make an apostrophe, but that’s annoying me, too.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Happy Birthday Shannon! Hope it’s a great one!:cheer:
September 6th, 2007 at 10:16 am
HEY where are YOU, birthday person???
HBTY, and if you finally post something on Thursday (thirteen things I hate/love about birthdays…thirteen wonderful/horrific birthday memories….thirteen presents I wish someone would buy me NOW) I’ll bug you again. :neener::neener::neener:
September 6th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Thank you, and I’m here. I was drafting the manifesto blog entry from hell. Seriously, it took me like two hours.
And…oh crap. It’s Thursday?